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'Commit yourself on University' Penwith tells Holland

Council takes tough stand on watered down
scheme

IN FIVE carefully worded resolutions, one assuring continued support, Exeter
University's Vice-Chancellor Sir Geoffrey Holland has been politely told to
'put his money where his mouth is' over the university's Trereife campus initiative
by Penwith District Council. The district council has already spent £100,000
to help Exeter with their initiative, £50,000 of which was part of a
joint deposit to secure the option to purchase the Trereife site. But time
is running out and Sir Geoffrey has so far been spectacularly unsuccessful
in his efforts to find any 'serious money' from sponsors with which to attract
matched funding.

The council's patience finally ran out at a closed meeting on Wednesday night
when, following meetings with the Exeter team they debated the invidious position
they had been placed in by the university. In mid-January Exeter told Penwith
that they could not meet their commitment to purchase Trereife. Their solution
was to ask the council to buy Trerieff [sic] for the university because they
'could not afford to' - or risk losing the university. The suggestion put
the local authority between a rock and a hard place, effectively asking them
to casually speculate with rate-payer's money on the off-chance that some
funding would materialise in the long term - against a background of current
failure.

'OLD FASHIONED'

Exeter's 'University of Cornwall' costed at £100 million would give
West Cornwall an 'old fashioned' style university campus at Penzance. Launched
three years ago by Sir Geoffrey the idea was received with great enthusiasm
throughout Cornwall but only Penwith was prepared to give a clear financial
commitment to the project. They guaranteed £l million of support funds.
Together with Exeter the council spent £100,000 to secure the option
to buy Trereife. Over the last three year Penwith has spent another £50,000
developing the project at their end. Now, clearly, the council wants Exeter
University to honour its side of the bargain.

The Holland Initiative began to flounder·when it failed to attract funding
from the Millennium Commission. A further, and much more damaging, blow came
when the project's viability was questioned in a report by International Consultants
PMKG for the Government Office South West, prior to an application for European
Regional Development Funding (ERDF). Finally, the ERDF postponed their decision
on a possible £15 million grant. In the face of the postponement Sir
Geoffrey announced a revised proposal which entailed little more than moving
the Camborne School of Mines to Penzance. In effect offering Penwith a considerably
watered down proposal which [sic] and also starting to burn the already hot
potato of local politics. Few if any local people wish to see the economy
of Camborne damaged further, even less want to be party to it.

NEW SCENARIO

"Clearly, this was a new scenario for the council which had previously
only agreed in principle to contribute £1 million for on site development
of the campus." Penwith said in a statement issued yesterday. "The
request requires the most careful examination, especially in view of the reduced
nature of the initial proposals which now relate principally to the relocation
of Camborne School of Mines as a first phase." It is difficult to imagine
that the revised proposal would not have disappointed even the initiative's
most ardent supporters. Indeed, Wednesday's voting, with only one councillor
voting against the resolutions, strongly suggests this to be the case.

Penwith District Council's resolutions are: that the University of Exeter
be advised the council remains strongly committed in principle to promoting
and securing the University Campus Initiative for Trereife and Cornwall. Secondly,
they will continue to reserve the remaining £9,000,000 from the Capital
Allocation to support the initiative. The key resolution (3) is that 'The
university be asked to purchase a further extension for two months of their
option to purchase the site' while a fourth resolution states that the council
will commission an Economic Impact Study into the new proposal once the further
option has been secured. The council will fund this new study from reserves
- an additional contribution to Exeter. Finally they have agreed to consider
the matter once study has been complete. [sic]

"In order to be fully informed in respect of the new proposals the Council
will now be securing a detail Economic Impact Study to assess the effects
of the significantly different scheme provided the University will extend
the time frame." Penwith's statement concludes, placing the ball firmly
back in Sir Geoffrey's court. The option on the Trereife site runs out on
March 31. Exeter University's Senate has just seventeen days to decide if
they really can afford to back the vision of their Vice-Chancellor while the
district council is now clearly looking for commitment or closure.

Document preparation: Chris Salter, Original
Think-tank, Cornwall, United Kingdom.
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Document Reference: <URL:http://www.originalthinktank.org.uk/archive/uoc/news9808.html>
Last modification: 14th January 2002
Last information content change: 12th November 1998